Britain’s gold rush over as rivals raise their game

SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France : The final day of track racing at the Olympic velodrome summed up the frustration of Britain’s lowest gold-medal tally on the boards since the 2000 Games in Sydney.
Jack Carlin’s hopes of a third medal of the week were wiped out in a high-speed crash near the finish of the keirin while earlier Neah Evans crashed in the omnium scratch race and was never in with a shout of a medal.
It was certainly not all doom and gloom for the cycling powerhouse as 21-year-old Emma Finucane’s bronze in the women’s sprint was her third medal from her debut Games – the first British woman to win three golds at one Olympics for 60 years.
That left Britain with a leading eight track medals, but only one gold, from the 12 events. The Netherlands topped the table with three golds followed by New Zealand and the United States with two apiece.
It was the first time Britain did not top a track medals table in terms of golds since 2000 and was a massive reduction on the seven they achieved in Beijing and London, seven in Rio and three in Tokyo.
“My view is that if you can hit above 50 per cent of your realistic metal chances at any Games, then you’re batting above average,” British Cycling performance director Stephen Park said. “So you’ve got to accept that because of the level of competition you’re going to leave some on the table.”
Britain still won more medals than any other nations across all the cycling disciplines and Park said there was plenty of reasons for optimism.
“The track programme here has been incredible. To come away with 11 medals (in cycling), to come away as the top nation, to have won the 1,000th medal (for Britain), to have Emma win three medals – the first woman to do that in 60 years – and to be competitive in every single event, is I think both a great outcome for here, but also for the future,” Park said.
Britain were without retired track greats Jason Kenny and Laura Kenny for Paris while Katie Archibald, who would have been a strong medal favourite in three events, was injured.